'Top Chef: Chicago' Finale Serves Up Record Ratings

6/12/2008 1:06 PM Eastern

By: By Larry Barrett

Bravo’s Top Chef: Chicago season finale attracted a total audience of more than 3.5 million viewers Wednesday night, making it the most-watched cable program of the day and delivering the network a 14% improvement from last season's final episode.

The top-rated food show on cable, this season’s final episode of Top Chef: Chicago drew 2.53 million adults 18-49, up 16% from the 2.18 million it recorded in last season’s finale.

Stephanie Izard (pictured) became the first woman to win Top Chef, out-cooking fellow finalists Richard Blais and Lisa Fernandes. It was the highest-rate telecast of the season, up 44% compared to the previous Top Chef: Chicago episodes.

This year’s iteration was the highest-rated Top Chef, averaging 1.81 million adults each week, up 23% versus the 1.47 million adults who tuned in last season.

Top Chef: Chicago cooked up strong online interest as well, posting an increase of 11% in total pages views over Top Chef 3: Miami (44.7 vs. 40.3 million). Unique visitors to BravoTV.com's Top Chef microsite increased 24% from the previous cycle with 523,000 average monthly unique visitors, up from 424,000.